Fr Jerry Daly's memoir raises urgent truths about the Church

A priest has published a memoir as a way of raising urgent truths about the Church he has served for 60 years, writes Helen O’Callaghan 

HE can’t prove it, but Fr Jerry Daly thinks he was one of the first priests in the world to turn his altar around when word emerged from Vatican II that priests could now face the congregation. It was the 1960s and Fr Jerry was a missionary in Indonesia, catering to several villages in the Kai Islands.

“I never liked having my back to the people. It was bonkers. You can’t communicate with people when you’ve got your back to them.”